President Uhuru Kenyatta’s public dressing-down of DCI George Kinoti, one of his most loyal and dedicated lieutenants, was bewildering. Kinoti had earlier suggested investigating the 2007-08 post-election violence cases, a perfectly legal issue that can be looked into without necessarily opening a can of.
The genesis of this saga was a number of landowners displaced from their legally acquired farms and premises had gone to seek Kinoti’s assistance. To whom else could the poor people go? Is it really fair for a stranger to till one’s legally acquired land or occupy it, while the genuine landowner is languishing somewhere as a squatter?
It defies all logic and morality to allow this to continue. Why are legal landowners not allowed to access their property in Rift Valley, Naivasha, Mombasa, Kisumu and elsewhere to dispose of them as they see fit or even occupy them under state security? Under the 2010 Constitution a Kenyan can own land anywhere in the republic without prejudice or threat.
Yes, it may be more than a decade since the PEV, but those injustices must be addressed to heal the scars of that dreadful period. We need to prick the conscience of people illegally occupying other Kenyans’ hard-earned properties.
If the illegal occupants fear God, they should withdraw from stolen properties before Kinoti catches up with them. I pray that the DCI will not think of resigning after the dressing-down from his boss, before those elderly people we saw on television get justice and are compensated.
Equality is of the essence. No Kenyan is more important than the other. The Covid-19 pandemic is probably a sign that God is not happy with us. Let us repent our sins of negligence, hate, injustice and envy towards one another.
Something else we should learn from this debacle is that a director or general manager should always defend his juniors from assailants. That is the way businesses are run, otherwise, they risk going under for lack of public trust. No one will take seriously an institution whose big boss tells off his juniors in public.
This reminds me of the old days in secondary school in the late seventies and early eighties. Our principal would not publicly scold a class prefect. In fact, if a student approached the principal with a grievance against a prefect, the rector would tell the aggrieved party that the monitors were his eyes.
Think also of a parent’s love for his/her child. Many a parent would strongly defend their child from any evil levelled against him/her. In religious circles, the magisterium will readily defend the clergy from any onslaught.
I would, therefore, urge Uhuru to defend his lieutenants and treat them honourably because they are his eyes.
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